Story Time:

Part 1: Chozubachi (Water Basin)

My friend @anelectricdream asked a bunch of us if we’d be willing to hike to the middle of unchartered forest in #MacRitchie to find an old abandoned Japanese Shinto.
And the answer to that was a unanimous #hellyea
Fast forward to 2 hours of hike on a late Sunday afternoon, with the impending setting sun and 4 lost idiots in the middle of #MacRitchie’s forest, scared, apprehensive, using an iPhone compass (of all things) and with @summerpasta singing MC Hammer’s “Can’t touch this,” we decide that if we can’t find the shrine in another 10 minutes we make a serious effort to just get out of the forest.
Right then, @incrdiblechimey proclaims, looking at his iPhone that we should be right over the shrine.
I’m in front now, leading the way I see this massive concrete structure in front of me and yell out, “I see a water tank.”
Memory fails me now, but someone from the back yells out –
“No, that’s the shrine.”
Read about the shrine here:
infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_236_2004-12-24.html

Part 2: Steps

Picking up where we left the story: we were lost.
@incrdiblechimey & @anelectricdream had luckily done some pre-reading and with the help of our dinky little map on iPhone, we devised that we’d make our way down this slippery flight of stairs to the water’s edge. There we’d be able to follow the shoreline to a clearing and ultimately chartered park grounds.
Walking down the stairs in a single file we realize that in among the growth we were really surrounded by concrete. Mossy walls, fallen pillars – even the stairs were a lot wider than the narrow bit that we walked down through.
Finally at the water’s edge, there’s hope. A 15 minute trek and we’re at a clear path.
No more forest.
We can even see the SICC golf course and joggers on the opposite bank.
We were home free.
We spoke too soon.

Part 3: A Simple Plan

We’re at the edge of the clearing. What lay between us and salvation is about 10 paces worth of water.
No big deal.
Just that it’s over grown with a water plant; very thick growth. And there’s no telling how deep the water goes around the bit of plant growth. There are these concrete pillars as well; remnants of what must’ve been a bridge. @incrdiblechimey actually tried climbing on to the nearest pillar, but there was just no way to get to the next one. We were a little stuck.
@incrdiblechimey then grabs a fallen branch and starts poking around for the water bed around the plant growth. Step one, would’ve been waist deep. No telling where to from there.
We’re being highly analytical now, considering every option. Turn back? No, not into the forest again, not with 30minutes to go before sunset.
Looking at the water plant, we’re thinking it’s dense enough to hold a person up for a few steps. There’s a concrete base close to the opposite bank, once on it we can climb onto the grass and call it a day.
A simple plan.
Let’s do this.
I hand my backpack to @incrdiblechimey and take the first step, onto the peeking green heads of this mass of water plant (and I still don’t know what they’re called).
Water rushes into my shoes, the base of green beneath me is sinking.
I’m in, water inching towards my knees.
About the Photo
What you see here is the bank we were stuck on. The pillars? Only the first two are connected. The bright green at the bank's edge is the "water plant" I refer to. Not a terribly wide gap yea? Sure, you try standing on sinking plants. Oh did I mention the monitor lizard we saw slip into the water 5 minutes before?

End

Courage? Nah, just sheer instinct.
Another step, and another step. And another.
Home free.
I’m knee deep in murky #Macritche water. But I’m on the concrete base close to the opposite bank.
The idea was to step light and step quick over the water plant growth.
@incrdiblechimey takes the next turn, with his backpack over his head. He’s across, I grab his bag and throw it on the bank.
@summerpasta’s turn, poor girl takes one step and falls in. No harm, just soaked. She gets up and skims across.
Now we realize the base of plants that’s been ferrying us across is sinking deeper and deeper. @anelectricdream is still on the other end. And so valiant @incrdiblechimey steps up and crosses the gap once again to grab my backpack from @anelectricdream and the both of them take turns crossing.
We’re on the other side. We’re safe.
As we pick ourselves up, wring the water from our socks and dust the sand from our shoes - the gravity of our ill preparation, the audacity with which we ventured into restricted forest grounds and just our general idiocy came crashing in on us all in one moment.
But in that very same moment we were just mad happy and proud of ourselves, thoroughly, (and I borrow these words from @incrdiblechimey) “enjoying the feeling of being fully alive.”
Thanks for the adventure guys, till next time.
- Sumit.